Dull /(?)/

1. Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish.

   She is not bred so dull but she can learn.

2. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.

   This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.

   O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.

3. Insensible; unfeeling.

   Think me not So dull a devil to forget the loss Of such a matchless wife.

4. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt.
5. Not bright or clear to the eye; wanting in liveliness of color or luster; not vivid; obscure; dim; as, a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror.
6. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert.

   As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.

7. Furnishing little delight, spirit, or variety; uninteresting; tedious; cheerless; gloomy; melancholy; depressing; as, a dull story or sermon; a dull occupation or period; hence, cloudy; overcast; as, a dull day.

   Along life's dullest, dreariest walk.

imp. & p. p. Duller; p. pr. & vb. n. Dulling

1. To deprive of sharpness of edge or point.

   Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

2. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.

   Those [drugs] she has Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.

   Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.

3. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
4. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.

   Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through continuance.

1. To become dull or stupid.